A2 Google Stops In G-Rap
Daniel Schoonmaker

GRAND RAPIDS — An obsessive commitment to the user experience has been the key to Google Inc.’s massive success, according to Google Ann Arbor chief Grady Burnett.

“We’ve had a laser focus on the user experience, rather than revenue,” Burnett told a standing-room-only Ad Club of West Michigan luncheon crowd yesterday at The BOB. “And we’ve been validated in that revenue has followed along behind that.”

The eight-year-old Google has turned the advertising world on its head with its altruistic philosophy of “organizing the world’s information.” Burnett meets dozens of people every day that “use 30 times a day, but have never paid the company anything and never intend to.” Yet, despite the vast multitude of its users providing absolutely no revenue, the company is on track to break $10 billion this year, its fifth consecutive year of near-triple-digit growth. Its now legendary stock has been trading at over $400 a share since September, and over $300 a share for the past year.

The director of online sales and operations for the new Google office in Ann Arbor, Burnett is leading the Mountain View, Calif., firm’s investment in Michigan. He has fostered a close relationship with Gov. Jennifer Granholm, and has a markedly upbeat view of the state’s economy.

“It was interesting moving here during the election season, when you were hearing and seeing all these bad things about Michigan,” he said. “From the outside looking in, we didn’t see any of that.”

In Michigan, Google sees a diverse, highly-educated state that will become the hub of its largest business sector over the next five years. In only a few months, the Ann Arbor office has grown to 40 employees, nearly all of those new to the company. By 2011, Google expects to employ 1,000 in Michigan, likely all of that in Southeast Michigan.

Burnett has been impressed with the welcome he has received, literally entertaining visitors offering brownies, cookies and the occasional resume. In return, the Google staff recently canvassed the main thoroughfare in Ann Arbor to ensure every business there had updated information on Google Maps.

The mapping application is one of dozens of ways the company delivers targeted advertisements to consumers. Other ads are distributed through content partners such as AOL and Amazon, subsidiaries such as Gmail and YouTube, and the AdWords program.

The AdWords program — for which Burnett manages hiring, customer service, account management and sales efforts — is the company’s original and largest revenue source. Through this, simple four-line ads are delivered alongside search results related for a specific query. These are kept separate from the organic results, but like the non-paid results, they are also ranked by merit.

Every time a query is entered into Google, the search engine’s algorithms format, in a fraction of a second, a list of results ranked by relevance. Above each search are one to three premium listings, and to the left are the AdWords results. For these results, a second set of algorithms is used factoring in an instantaneous auction among advertisers and the relevance of the ad content to the query — the highest-rank AdWord result is not necessarily the highest-paying ad.

Ever focused on the user experience, the system is based on a philosophy of usefulness, precise targeting, ease of use and accountability. The company prides itself on being able to show that its products work for advertisers, Burnett said, and has proven itself one of the strongest marketing mediums available today.

He offered the case study of Cosmo Buomo, a New York pianist who recently launched an international piano competition. Buomo spent 15 minutes setting up his AdWords profile, the only marketing vehicle he used, and within weeks had dozens of pianists registered for his event. BJX